Businessweek Archives

Whither the Investing Class?

No big surprise that investors are feeling battered. But is their portfolio pain enough to make them switch sides in the election? BusinessWeek?? Moira Herbst writes about an interesting new poll that seems to show a shift of some ??nvesting class?people from John McCain’s camp over to that of Barack Obama. At the depths of the financial meltdown, investor-class voters polled by Zogby found McCain and Obama about even — a fairly significant shift, considering that McCain had a 15-point lead in late September. Since then, McCain seems to have won back a small portion of their support.

This is the third time BusinessWeek has checked in on this key group. As our previous article pointed out in February, those who identify themselves as investors are a diverse lot that accounts for about a third of the electorate. But each segment of this group — whether it’s union members, suburban environmentalists, African Americans or Hispanics — has tended to lean Republican. If McCain can’t hold them, he may not stand much of a chance.